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If you live in the Lower Mainland and have a backyard apple tree, the province is asking you not to take your fruit to the Okanagan-Similkameen, for fear it’s infested with an apple maggot that could threaten that region’s $130-million apple industry.

The apple maggot, which burrows in all directions through the apple flesh, feeding on the pulp, leaving brown channels and making the fruits inedible, is already established in the Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island. But it has yet to cross the mountains and infiltrate the Okanagan-Similkameen, the only commercial apple-producing region in North America that’s free of the pest.

And the government wants to keep it that way.

”We have the luxury of not having major significant pests of tree fruit in those areas,” said Tracy Hueppelsheuser, provincial entomologist for the agriculture ministry. “The way [the apple maggot] is spread is by people moving around infested fruit or planting stock. They can help by not moving the fruit around.”

Signs have been installed on highways 3 and 5, reminding Lower Mainland residents not to bring any fruit, such as apples, crabapples, hawthorn, pears, plums — or any fruit bins or the containers used to hold apples — into the two valleys. Plants with garden soil that were grown near fruit trees are also to be kept out as per federal regulations.

“The fruit we’re more concerned with is backyard fruit; people aren’t monitoring it and don’t realize what’s infesting their fruit,” said Greg Lucas, general manager of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association. “They pick them even when there’s a mark on them ... we really prefer people to buy our apples when they get up here.”

Lucas said the apple maggot could be devastating for the commercial apple industry. B.C.’s interior tree fruit industry represents 800 growers who operate orchards that generate $130 million in wholesale revenue, contribute $900 million in economic activity, and directly employs 1,500 person years at the grower, packer, and processor level.

Lucas noted most local growers don’t spray their fruit after it blossoms. The Similkameen Valley is also renowned for organic production of tree fruits, and a new apple pest would reverse its progress in reducing pesticide use.

“If we lose five per cent of the crop because of that it’s a big hit on our industry,” he said. “You go from being a struggling farmer to losing a lot of money.”

Apples continue to trump all others as the most common tree fruit grown for sale by the BC Fruit Growers Association and is considered the most valuable edible tree fruit in the province.

About 58 per cent of all B.C. orchard land is planted in apples; the province produces about 24 per cent of the apples grown in Canada, with about 91 per cent of apples grown in the Thompson-Okanagan Region.

The apple maggot, which is indigenous to North America, was first discovered in B.C. in 2006, believed to have come from Washington state. The black-bodied maggot, which is about a quarter-inch long and similar to common fly, is one of several pest to plague B.C.’s fruits; the codling moth and apple clearwing moth among them.

Any fruit from the Lower Mainland that appears to be infested — such as with a worm hole or dark, rotten spots — should be taken immediately to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or a ministry of agriculture office.

The fruit should never be composted, but instead placed in a sealed bag and buried it at least 30 centimetres deep.

The province has issued a similar warning for another pest, the apple clearwing moth, which has been found in Coastal B.C., Cawston, Keremeos, Oliver, North Osoyoos, Kelowna and Belgo.

The larvae burrow inside the bark and may not be visible. To prevent this pest from spreading in the Okanagan and Creston Valleys, residents are advised not move fruit trees, soil and rootstocks from infested areas.

A Sterile Insect Release Program already operates in fruit-growing areas of the Okanagan, Similkameen and Shuswap Valleys to deal with the codling moth, one of the B.C. tree fruit industry’s most damaging and costly pests.

“We all need to do our part in preventing the spread of these pests,” Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater said in a statement. “The apple industry is very important to the Okanagan and B.C.’s economy; to support our jobs, our food supply, and our farming communities.”

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B.C. wants public to join fight against apple maggots

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